There are moments in public life when someone carefully lifts the lid to reveal what really happens in the corridors of power and show us that the gruesome details are even worse than we thought.
That was the case on Tuesday when the now-sacked chief mandarin of the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins, gave evidence to to the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal – and revealed a Downing Street operation defined by cronyism and cynicism to its very core.
